This is an extraordinary show of paranoia on the part of our enemy...

April 19, 2003

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!

An absolutely extraordinary article!

Shortly before Ernst Zundel was arrested on February 5, we were sitting peacefully at breakfast, sipping our German coffee, admiring not only each other but the splendidly sun-drenched morning outside - when, all of a sudden and out of the blue, Ernst outlined for me in clipped words exactly the scenario sketched below.

I was so startled that I said to myself: "Well, since we are married, am I permitted to think that maybe, just maybe, my husband is a little off his rocker? Who would think of Europe as a threat? Who would be so foolish as to put 'Old Europe' in the cross-hairs as an 'enemy'? Surely not America!"

Talk about clairvoyance!

[START}

A Theory: What if there's method to the Franco-German madness?

Micheal Ledeen

Assume, for a moment, that the French and the Germans aren't thwarting us out of pique, but by design, long-term design. Then look at the world again, and see if there's evidence of such a design.

Like everyone else, the French and the Germans saw that the defeat of the Soviet Empire projected the United States into the rare, almost unique position of a global hyperpower, a country so strong in every measurable element that no other nation could possibly resist its will. The "new Europe" had been designed to carve out a limited autonomy for the old continent, a balance-point between the Americans and the Soviets. But once the Soviets were gone, and the Red Army melted down, the European Union was reduced to a combination theme park and free-trade zone. Some foolish American professors and doltish politicians might say - and even believe - that henceforth "power" would be defined in economic terms, and that military power would no longer count. But cynical Europeans know better.

They dreaded the establishment of an American empire, and they sought for a way to bring it down.

If you were the French president or the German chancellor, you might well have done the same.

How could it be done? No military operation could possibly defeat the United States, and no direct economic challenge could hope to succeed. That left politics and culture. And here there was a chance to turn America's vaunted openness at home and toleration abroad against the United States. So the French and the Germans struck a deal with radical Islam and with radical Arabs: You go after the United States, and we'll do everything we can to protect you, and we will do everything we can to weaken the Americans.

The Franco-German strategy was based on using Arab and Islamic extremism and terrorism as the weapon of choice, and the United Nations as the straitjacket for blocking a decisive response from the United States.

This required considerable skill, and total cynicism, both of which were in abundant supply in Paris and Berlin. Chancellor Shroeder gained reelection by warning of American warmongering, even though, as usual, America had been attacked first. And both Shroeder and Chirac went to great lengths to support Islamic institutions in their countries, even when - as in the French case - it was in open violation of the national constitution. French law stipulates a total separation of church and state, yet the French Government openly funds Islamic "study" centers, mosques, and welfare organizations. A couple of months ago, Chirac approved the creation of an Islamic political body, a mini-parliament, that would provide Muslims living in France with official stature and enhanced political clout. And both countries have permitted the Saudis to build thousands of radical Wahhabi mosques and schools, where the hatred of the infidels is instilled in generation after generation of young Sunnis. It is perhaps no accident that Chirac went to Algeria last week and promised a cheering crowd that he would not rest until America's grand design had been defeated.

Both countries have been totally deaf to suggestions that the West take stern measures against the tyrannical terrorist sponsors in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. Instead, they do everything in their power to undermine American-sponsored trade embargoes or more limited sanctions, and it is an open secret that they have been supplying Saddam with military technology through the corrupt ports of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid's little playground in Dubai, often through Iranian middlemen.

It sounds fanciful, to be sure. But the smartest people I know have been thoroughly astonished at recent French and German behavior. This theory may help understand what's going on. I now believe that I was wrong to forecast that the French would join the war against Iraq at the last minute, having gained every possible economic advantage in the meantime. I think Chirac will oppose us before, during, and after the war, because he has cast his lot with radical Islam and with the Arab extremists. He isn't doing it just for the money - although I have no doubt that France is being richly rewarded for defending Saddam against the civilized countries of the world - but for higher stakes. He's fighting to end the feared American domination before it takes stable shape.

If this is correct, we will have to pursue the war against terror far beyond the boundaries of the Middle East, into the heart of Western Europe. And there, as in the Middle East, our greatest weapons are political: the demonstrated desire for freedom of the peoples of the countries that oppose us.

Radio Free France, anyone?

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- Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. Ledeen, Resident Scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, can be reached through Benador Associates

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Michael A. Ledeen

Dr. Michael A. Ledeen, who holds the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's leading authorities on intelligence, contemporary history and international affairs. In a few years in government, he carried out some of the most sensitive and dangerous missions in recent American history. He has been profiled in the New York Times, and was the subject of a front-page article and a lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal. A profile of him concluded that "a portrait emerges of a man with an intense knowledge of 20th-century history, a deep commitment to democracy, and a willingness to be adventurous. This is a man who has helped shape American foreign policy at its highest levels."

As Ted Koppel puts it, "Michael Ledeen is a Renaissance man...in the tradition of Machiavelli."

Formerly Rome correspondent for the New Republic, the founding editor of the Washington Quarterly, and Contributing Editor of National Review Online, he is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, The International Economy, the American Spectator, the New York Sun, and National Review, an adviser to multinational corporations in Europe, Africa and the United States, and a corporate director in America and Africa. He also writes about contract bridge for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Sun.

Dr. Ledeen is a celebrated scholar and lecturer. He holds a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, and has been the recipient of many awards and research grants. His 15 books include Grave New World, which predicted the crisis of the Soviet Empire five years before it occurred, Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, (1999, St. Martin's Press), Tocqueville on American Character; Why Tocqueville's Brilliant Exploration of the American Spirit is as Vital and Important Today as it was nearly Two Hundred Years Ago (St. Martin's Press, 2000) and, most recently, his highly successful The War Against the Terror Masters; How it Happened. Where We Are Now. How We Will Win (St. Martin's Press, 2002). He is currently writing a book on Naples, Italy.

His essays and books have been reprinted in dozens of languages around the world. Dr. Ledeen lectures on War & Peace, Terrorism, the Middle East, and American Foreign Policy.

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Table of Contents for additional articles

Revisionism 101: Basic Revisionism

Revisionism 201 for Holocaust Skeptics

"David against Goliath": Ernst Zündel, fighting the New World Order

"Lebensraum!": Ingrid Rimland, pioneering a True World Order